PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers’ carryover from this roster to next season’s will be sparse. Only five players are under contract. Three others hold player options and one more has a team option for the 2014-15 season.

Then there’s Hollis Thompson, for whom free agency seems like a mere formality. Sixers coach Brett Brown last week labeled Thompson “a keeper.” He’s the byproduct of a rebuild effort that has given ample minutes and opportunity to fringe players, and Thompson has shown that he might be worthy of a contractual obligation from the Sixers.

So what does keeper status mean to Thompson?

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“I have no idea, really,” Thompson said with a chuckle. “I guess it just means (Brown) likes what I’ve been doing. I’m going to keep listening to the coaches and do what I can on the court.”

Thompson’s story is unique.

The Georgetown product went undrafted in 2012, spent 2013 in the NBA D-League and showed up last October as an invitee for Sixers’ training camp. He was the last to survive Brown’s roster cuts, being tapped as the Sixers’ 15th man. From there, he’s elevated his game to ‘occasional starter,’ and become one of Brown’s more-reliable players.

Thompson, who’s made 21 starts, has appeared in all but five games of the Sixers’ 60 games. He’s averaging 5.8 points and 3.1 rebounds in 25.0 minutes per game, while ranking second among rookies with a .464 field-goal percentage, and fourth among first-year guys with a .356 3-point shooting percentage.

The 6-8, 206-pound Thompson credited his success to “following instruction.” When asked to play the shooting guard position, he has. When asked to work out of the small forward, or even power forward, slot, he’s done so.

When asked by Sixers assistant Billy Lange to accompany him to video sessions, to break down his footwork on corner 3s, or on his shot follow-through, Thompson has been there.

“I just try to hustle, do what I’m told and try to make a difference on the court and help my team win,” said Thompson, who turns 23 next month. “I’ve been putting in a lot of work with Coach Lange. He’s been teaching me a lot of different things. I feel like I’ve been getting better in every area.”

Every area?

“Honestly, everything,” Thompson said.

The numbers support Thompson’s theory.

“Means I need to keep listening to Coach Lange,” Thompson said.

While Thompson’s impact at the offensive end has been felt with these Sixers (15-45), who will look to end a 14-game losing streak Tuesday night at Oklahoma City, it’s at the other end of the floor where Brown envisions Thompson eventually earning his greatest minutes as an NBA player.

Brown said he’d like to see Thompson add a little muscle and a little weight to his wiry frame in order to improve his defensive game. If all goes well with Thompson and his coaching staff, Brown thinks Thompson could become one of the league’s elite on-ball defenders.

“Who is Hollis Thompson? We’re trying to take a shooter and a pretty good athlete, and maybe get some weight on him as he gets older and get him playing defense,” Brown said. “If we do that, there’s a place for him.”

As for the other aspects of Thompson’s game which Brown admires, where do you start? Thompson “ticks boxes,” as Brown likes to say. Thompson is a high-character, friendly guy in the locker room. He’s routinely the last player off the practice floor at PCOM, and one of the first onto the court at Wells Fargo Center for pregame warmups.

“You start molding some of those big-bucket areas and you say, ‘Yep. He ticks this. He needs work here,’” Brown said, “and you make evaluations on players – I do – with those areas, and Hollis ticks a lot of those areas.”

As uncertainty with the Sixers’ roster abounds, Thompson appears to have carved a niche for himself.